The question everyone is asking after watching the trailer for Brightburn is; “What if Superman was evil?”
Co-written by James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy and the horror movie Slither), Brightburn deliberately invokes many of the Superman iconic moments.
The film stars David Denman (Power Rangers, The Office) as the father, one Mr Breyer and Elizabeth Banks (Power Rangers, The Lego Movie) as the mother, Mrs Breyer. Gunn first worked in the horror cult hit (but box office failure Slither.
In Slither a meteorite containing evil and intelligent slug-like parasites smashes into a sleepy town. In Superman, Clark is crashes to earth in what the Kents might first thing is a meteorite but turns out to be his capsule. Brightburn might be a mix of the two.
The film’s official synopsis says;
What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister,”
“With Brightburn, the visionary filmmaker of Guardians of the Galaxy and Slither presents a startling, subversive take on a radical new genre: superhero horror.”
Superhero horror, I think, is new unless M. Night Shyamalan wants to put his hand up and claim it first.
Gunn isn’t directing the film and he’s one of many producers. David Yarovesky is the director. He’s got a Guardians of the Galaxy director credit to his name but, to be clear, that credit is for co-directing Guardians of the Galaxy: Inferno.
Here it is:
Ultimately, if Superman is the suggestion that nurture, the loving upbringing of the Kents, was enough to ensure Superman became everything humanity would aspire to be but fail then it looks like Brightburn is the opposite. No matter what Breyer devotions offer to Brandon Breyer he already was what he was going to become.
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